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Who Are You?

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?
I came very close to buying a Billie Eilish mask, today. But when I read the fine print, I saw that it was not 'functional', but merely decorative. I'd have to wear a real mask under it, and that put me off. I still like the idea of a fat old man wearing Billie Eilish bling, though. But the navel stud was out of the question, and as wildly oversized as all her clothes are, they still probably would not fit me. :) And I don't even have a smart phone to put that little button-thingy (pop-socket) on.

I'm thinking maybe it's time to just make my own Billie Eilish bling. Maybe a big painted magnetic cut-out of that 'blohsh' symbol to stick on my car.
 
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Cooky

Veteran Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?

I'll wonder that too sometimes, because I could have two back to back days where the weather is exactly the same, I eat similar things, and I get the same amount of sleep, but I'll have two totally different outlooks and I don't know why that happens.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?


Depends entirely on how well i sleep and how much coffee i consume before the day hits me between the eyes
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
...In my 40's, I've noticed the food comatose dilemma has increased two-fold. Seriously it's like if I don't graze lightly all day, But eat an actual meal, my digestive track eats up like 90% of my energy. Sucks.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
tumblr_p1eihoaBy11v5nbpeo6_250.gifv
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?
It's an old saying that is: you become what you think.
So the I is never the same, because the thinking is always changing.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
...In my 40's, I've noticed the food comatose dilemma has increased two-fold. Seriously it's like if I don't graze lightly all day, But eat an actual meal, my digestive track eats up like 90% of my energy. Sucks.

Remember, eating any chocolate that you don't really want does not increase weight...;-)
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?
The short answer is: I'm the sum of my genetic potential and my experiences.
The long answer is ... longer. Do you happen to have read "The Mind's I" by Hofstadter/Dennett?
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
The short answer is: I'm the sum of my genetic potential and my experiences.
The long answer is ... longer. Do you happen to have read "The Mind's I" by Hofstadter/Dennett?
I have. Read everything by both gentlemen, who I find wonderfully brilliant writers.

I'm probably going to the most boring responder to this thread -- I find that I perceive myself to be quite consistently "me" day after day. No radical changes in mood, perspective, hopes, etc.It just feels to me as if I can still "connect all the dots" that are the 4-dimensional me.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?

I tend to fall in line with this reasoning:

"A disciple of the noble ones considers this: 'I am not the only one who is owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator; who — whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir." Upajjhatthana Sutta: Subjects for Contemplation

My actions change, I change. The problem is trying to align who I am with what I do. Kind of like trying to make sense of the reflection in the mirror.

It's a bit frustrating when I'm prematurely defined by what I do. What I say is like training wheels. If people throw aside what I say and just focus on what I do, they're only getting what I'm working on; that, changes all the time. I guess I keep people on their toes by just being me. Other times friends and family see me in one way only that to "be" someone else would bring up objections and reasons why I can't be someone else-lack of resources, illness, limitations, so have you.

I don't know who I am if going by what I value and believe. I just realize who I am by what I continue to do. The former is in reflection of the latter not the other way around. Like the Dharma mentions, everything is in constant change. So, who would be a verb of action rather than a noun like a soul or spirit.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Since this thread is in a religious debate area, I continue to wear a canine mask. The canine religion is love, of course. But that form of love can be very fierce is needed such as the love of chasing small bushy tailed rodents. And the love of mischief.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I have. Read everything by both gentlemen, who I find wonderfully brilliant writers.
I agree. Dennett more for the deep philosophical questions and Hofstadter for the childlike wonder of how the world and the mind is beautifully interconnected.
I'm probably going to the most boring responder to this thread -- I find that I perceive myself to be quite consistently "me" day after day. No radical changes in mood, perspective, hopes, etc.It just feels to me as if I can still "connect all the dots" that are the 4-dimensional me.
I often have the illusion I can. But i question that whenever I learn how false my memories can be.
 

Bird123

Well-Known Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?


Yes, we all are free to choose who we are and how we act. These free choices are within the parameters of our life.

One can learn so much about others through their actions and choices. Our actions show God and the world what we know and what we need to learn.

Perception is a bit more tricky. It's easy seeing people who are learning lessons we have already learned. It is also easy seeing people who have already learned lessons we have already learned. The tricky part comes because it is hard to see others learning or have already learned the lessons we have yet to learn. Often one can be blind to what stares one in the face.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Do you get to choose who you are for today? What mask will you choose to wear? Benevolent and helpful person? Horrible malevolent *******?

Or do you even have a choice? Are you are static and unchanging?

Who is it that chooses who you'll be today, tomorrow, or in your life?

Who are you? Is it the person others perceive? That you perceive? Or are you something beyond that perception?
I am a firm believer in free will, so I believe that it is ME who chooses who I will be every day -- today, tomorrow, and in my life.

I believe I have a choice to a certain degree but free will has certain constraints so I cannot always be what I would like to be or do what I would like to do. Some constraints are emotional or mental, some constraints are physical.

For example if I do not feel well physically, I cannot do what I would like to do. I almost fell off my bike while riding it yesterday; it had to come to that for me to realize that I was that tired. Another example is that I would like to be a more religious person, but I have certain emotional constraints that hold me back.

I do not know how others aside from my husband perceive me, and I generally do not care unless I think I am doing something wrong or I am not doing the best I can at whatever I am responsible for.

I believe that ultimately I am who God perceives me to be and that is all that really matters. That is why I strive to align myself to the Will of God as I can know it.
 
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